HYDERABAD: Denizens wondering just why the state government is sleeping over the acute
water shortage haunting the city for weeks now, might find an answer in this startling revelation: most water board tankers are on 'VIP duty', ensuring round-the-clock service to ministers and senior bureaucrats.
The severe crunch notwithstanding, this privileged lot of Hyderabadis is enjoying uninterrupted water supply at their bungalows. A chunk of the 110 free-trip category tankers under the water board cater to these VIPs.
Tanker-owners supplying to these prime neighbourhoods, particularly the MLA Colony in Banjara Hills and the cluster of bungalows housing ministers and bureaucrats in Kundanbagh and Jubilee Hills, reveal how an average of a dozen trips are daily reserved for the creamy layer.
The waiting period for these customers is negligible, ranging from just a few hours to, at worst, half-a-day. This when the rest of Hyderabad is forced to wait for a good three to four days for one tanker of water. In some areas, the waiting period is currently a long 10 days.
In Banjara Hills, too, where the water crisis is unprecedented this year, government bungalows are sufficiently stocked. The 40-odd houses on Road No.12 (MLA Colony) routinely receive free water board tankers even as the rest of the area remains parched.
"While we have heavy bookings on the MCC (metro customer care) service by regular citizens, we are unable to supply to 50% of them due to a severe shortage. Even in such a situation, if there is a VIP requirement, we have to make arrangements to supply at the earliest," said a water board source. Requests from ministers and babus residing at Jubilee Hills, too, are answered with equal urgency. "One cannot refuse when the order comes from a managerial-level officer of the water board," the source added. While in most cases, the deliveries are free, even paid tankers (from the fleet of 450) are sent when the circumstances are dire, he said.
"Roughly 20-30 tankers are sent to Kundanbagh every day to cater to government officials residing in the area. As these requests are routed through senior officials of the water board, we have no choice but to oblige," said a tanker operator.
The row of bungalows and plush apartments in Kundanbagh house top-level IAS/IPS officers and high court judges among other eminent government servants. Interestingly, apartments surrounding this 'sarkari' fiefdom have been going without water for close to a week now.
Such discrimination is predictably rubbished by the bosses at the Hyderabad Metropolitan Water Supply & Sewerage Board.
They maintained that tankers were being supplied as per bookings, irrespective of a citizen's profile. "No tankers are being delivered for free, either to ministers or to bureaucrats," said Adhar Sinha, the water board managing director. He was quick to point out that the water bills for these customers were settled by the government.
